The Liberian-flagged tanker NEW SUNRISE is currently broadcasting a false location in the Persian Gulf after leaving a trail of oily waste and unanswered questions regarding its activities in European waters over the past few months.

Analysis fueled by SkyTruth and Global Fishing Watch reveals that the operators of the NEW SUNRISE petrochemical tanker falsified their Automatic Identification System (AIS) position broadcast between November 14 and November 25, 2024, as well as between February 4, 2025 and the date of this publication (February 19, 2025).

There is also no AIS transmission from the vessel between August 29 and September 11, 2024. Though it evaded public tracking, analysis shows the tanker entered the Russian ports of Taman and Kaliningrad. SkyTruth’s marine oil pollution tracking platform Cerulean also showed the vessel likely responsible for three oily slicks observed in September and November 2024.

This misuse and falsification of AIS broadcasts is typical of a wider fleet of tankers now routinely broadcasting false tracks to hide traffic with Russia and other countries subject to international sanctions. In the case of the NEW SUNRISE (IMO: 9234599), questions are now raised about what the vessel was trying to hide and whether they are in breach of Liberia’s international obligations as a Party to the The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL).

Tanker operates globally but takes care to hide entries into Russian ports

On July 31, 2024 the NEW SUNRISE left the Indonesian port of Lubuk Gaung in the Malacca Strait. Upon departure the vessel adjusted its draft; that is the depth below the waterline to the lowest part of the hull. The increase in draft indicated that the tanker took on a cargo and, consequently, was sitting lower in the water. Port facilities at Lubuk Gaung mainly handle palm oil, suggesting that may have been the product loaded there. The tanker then proceeded to transit across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal and the Bosphorus Strait, and entered into the Black Sea at the end of August. 

However on August 29, about 30 miles south of the Kerch Strait, all position broadcasts suddenly stopped and did not resume again until September 11. During this period, a tanker matching the size and characteristics of the NEW SUNRISE can be seen on high resolution satellite imagery at dock in the Russian port of Taman in the Kerch Strait. 

When the vessel resumed broadcasting on September 11, the AIS positions initially appeared on land in Russian occupied Crimea. This was the result of GNSS interference now frequently observed in conflict zones, and not deliberate falsification. AIS also showed that the vessel’s draft had decreased — indicating that it had unloaded the cargo carried from Indonesia. The next day as they transited southwest towards Istanbul, SkyTruth’s Cerulean platform caught the vessel linked to a 36-mile long slick extending out behind the vessel. Such slicks commonly result from vessels bilge dumping or washing out their cargo tanks. 

Oily waste on the surface of water causes it to be smoother than surrounding unoiled waters and, therefore, appear darker on the Sentinel-1 (S1) radar imagery Cerulean uses to detect slicks. It’s not possible to tell if the waste was from mineral oil (crude oil or fuel oil residues, lubricants) for which dumping at sea is restricted by the MARPOL Convention, or if it was vegetable-based oil for which there is no current regulation against dumping in international waters. 

The tanker then proceeded to a Turkish port near Istanbul where a change in draft indicated that they again loaded a cargo. From there they proceeded west through the Mediterranean Sea and English Channel before entering the Baltic Sea, eventually reaching the Estonian port of Paldiski. They were at dock near a biodiesel plant and departed higher in the water, indicating another offloading of cargo. After a loop in the Baltic Sea, the tanker headed toward the Polish coast but, instead of proceeding toward Gdansk, appeared to stay in an odd square pattern about 40 miles out at sea. Over the next 12 days, three overpasses of the S1 satellite failed to detect the vessel at the locations indicated by its AIS broadcast. 

Furthermore the AIS positions broadcast showed irregularities inconsistent with the movements of a real vessel. 

New detection methods used to expose multiple instances of AIS spoofing

The NEW SUNRISE initially came to our attention when we ran an automated query for vessels not detected by S1 satellite radar at the position indicated by their AIS broadcast – a telling sign of AIS falsification. On S1 imagery metal hulled vessels over 50 meters in length are reliably detected and appear distinctly as small white ovals. Since the NEW SUNRISE is 183 meters in length we knew that it would appear clearly on S1 imagery if the vessel was really at its broadcast location. 

Global Fishing Watch now processes all S1 imagery and pulls out the locations of every vessel present. This makes it possible to correlate these detections with AIS and identify the vessels visible on S1. This correlation also makes clear cases when AIS indicates a large vessel should have been present on S1 but it does not appear.

In the case of the NEW SUNRISE, the analysis identified two recent periods of AIS falsification. The first period from November 14 to November 25, 2024 in the Baltic Sea, and the second from February 4 to this article’s publication date (February 19, 2025) in the Persian Gulf. We focused particularly on the tanker’s activities in November 2024 to see if we could uncover what activity the tanker may have been hiding in the Baltic Sea. 

So what was the real location of the NEW SUNRISE while it broadcast these false positions north of the Polish coast? 

Two clues point to the nearby Russian port of Kaliningrad. 

First, when the vessel resumed broadcasting real AIS positions on November 25, they showed a course pointing precisely away from the Strait of Baltiysk, a channel through which all traffic to and from Kaliningrad must pass. Secondly, Estonian port records list Kaliningrad as its next destination port. Puzzlingly, the records only indicate ballast as cargo. Despite this evidence, no high resolution imagery was available to confirm the tanker’s presence in Kaliningrad. 

After resuming normal AIS position broadcasts, the tanker shows a track leaving the Baltic Sea, transiting back through the Mediterranean and Suez Canal, visiting ports in India, and eventually going to the Persian Gulf where on February 4, 2025 they again begin broadcasting false AIS positions near the Iraqi coast. After inquiring with TankerTrackers.com the vessel’s real location on February 10, 2025 was confirmed to be approximately 40 miles to the east within Iranian waters. 

The activity of the NEW SUNRISE leaves some unanswered questions and illustrates a troubling trend – the increasingly routine falsification of AIS tracking data by tankers to avoid making their movements public. 

We don’t know what motivated the operators of the NEW SUNRISE to first switch off and then falsify its AIS broadcast. It might be as simple as wanting to avoid public scrutiny for legal activities in Russian ports or concealing activity that would increase insurance premiums. Alternatively, such falsification could have also been used to hide activities that violate sanctions. As a Party to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, Liberia is required to ensure that all of its flagged tankers broadcast AIS accurately and consistently unless specific safety and security risks are present.

It is imperative that countries supporting the implementation of international sanctions investigate instances of AIS being broadcast inaccurately or inconsistently, and that flag States take action when their registered vessels break the rules. In addition, detected slicks like those we linked with the NEW SUNRISE should prompt serious investigation by port authorities, with vessel operators needing to prove that they did not not dump oily waste in violation of the international MARPOL Convention. 

The NEW SUNRISE is unfortunately just one example of many tankers broadcasting false AIS, and similar pollution slicks are routinely detected from shipping activity around the world. Fortunately, automated tools for detecting this activity are also coming online. Global Fishing Watch’s work automating the detection of AIS falsification and SkyTruth’s Cerulean platform for oil slick detection will be powerful tools for transparency.

However, it is ultimately the flag and port States’ responsibility to take significant action against vessels hiding their activities and polluting international waters.